Portuguesa
Carminho voice
André Dias portuguese guitar
Flavio Cardoso acoustic guitar
Tiago Maia acoustic bass
Pedro Geraldes electric guitar and lap steel
João Pimenta mellotron
1.30 h (w/out intermission)
carminho.music
photo ©Fernando Tomaz
Portuguesa is Carminho’s new studio album, produced by her, and the sixth of her career. It contains fourteen songs, some of them with her own music and lyrics, and some by other composers and song writers, including Luisa Sobral, Joana Espadinha, Alfredo Marceneiro and Antonio Campos. All of them are a profound reflection on Carrminho’s concept of fado, an endeavour in which the singer explores new combinations within the established structure, rethinking the classic formulas of a genre which is her natural medium. Although for the native of Lisbon, “there is not a new fado. Fado is a living language that transforms itself with different generations and the manner in which fado singers grow with their culture.”
Carminho learned the traditional music of her country from her mother, the fado singer Teresa Sigueira, and with other great women of Portuguese songs, such as Beatriz da Conceição and Fernanda Maria. She made her debut at the age of twelve, but it was in 2007 when she gained popularity after participating in the film Fados, by Carlos Saura. Two years later, she released her first album, Fado -Platinum Record, Best New Fado Album of the last decade (Time Out)- consolidating her career and with international critics praising her incomparable voice, talent and tenacity. Other hits followed, such as ‘Perdóname’, a collaboration with Pablo Alborán with which she became the first Portuguese singer to reach number one in the Spanish music charts, and ‘Canto’, with Caetano Veloso.
Carminho continues her work as a committed author, performer and the utmost inspiration for present-day Portugal.
